Written by Econintersect
Early Bird Headlines 17 Sep 2018
Econintersect: Here are some of the headlines we found to help you start your day. For more headlines see our afternoon feature for GEI members, What We Read Today, published Monday, Wednesday and Friday, which has many more headlines and a number of article discussions to keep you abreast of what we have found interesting.
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​Global
- Asia markets broadly lower as US-China trade tensions rise again (CNBC) Asian markets were broadly negative on Monday, amid reports over the weekend that the U.S. could be imposing new tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods as early as this week. The U.S. dollar index was at 94.937 as of 3:02 p.m. HK/SIN, largely holding firm to its gains from last Friday. Brent crude oil futures dipped $0.16 (0.2%) to $77.93 a barrel by 0035 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures fell $0.20 or 0.3%, to $68.79 a barrel. Spot gold was up 0.2% at $1,195.27 an ounce as of 0354 GMT, after falling 0.6% on Friday when it marked its third straight weekly decline.
U.S.
- Gallup chief: Americans have ‘dismissed’ idea that Trump acted illegally with Russia (The Hill) Gallup editor-in-chief Frank Newport said on Tuesday that Americans have come to reject the idea that President Trump did anything criminal with regards to Russian interference in the 2016 election. Newport was referring to a Gallup poll released last week (see next article) that found that only 29% of Americans said they believed Trump acted illegally in Russian involvement during the 2016 campaign.
- Three in 10 Say Trump Acted Illegally During 2016 Campaign (Gallup) Three in 10 U.S. adults believe Donald Trump acted illegally in separate incidents during the 2016 campaign. Twenty-nine percent believe he broke the law for his campaign’s alleged involvement with Russian officials, the focus of independent counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. Meanwhile, 31% say Trump acted illegally in making payments to two women in the fall of 2016 who alleged having affairs with him.
Americans are more inclined to believe Trump acted unethically, but not illegally, in the hush-money payments matter (37%) than to say he did nothing seriously wrong (23%). On the other hand, more, 35%, believe Trump did nothing wrong in the Russia matter than say he acted unethically (27%).
- Trump, Obama spar over economy. Who’s right? (The Hill) By many metrics, the economy is booming, and both President Trump and former President Obama want you to know that they are the one to thank. Under Trump, the stock market hit new highs, the unemployment rate dropped to lows not seen in decades, and consumer and business confidence has soared.
Economists and experts say both presidents make good points, but both are also wrong to a certain degree.
- Barack Obama is back to fire up the base – Democrat and Republican (The Guardian) The ex-president is on the trail for the midterms, attacking Donald Trump. Strategists on both sides welcome him
- Former Obama administration official: Trump is addressing ‘longstanding’ trade issues (CNBC)
- Michael Froman, who served as U.S. Trade Representative under former President Barack Obama, offered some advice for Trump’s team, but emphasized that the current administration is focusing on “longstanding trade issues.”
- On the subject of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the now-defunct 12-nation trade agreement he had helped shape, Froman said he was encouraged by the ongoing discussions around its (U.S.-lacking) successor.
- Trump canceled U.S. involvement in the TPP when he entered the White House, but Froman told CNBC he sees the work that went into the original agreement as impacting U.S. policy.
- “Unprecedented amount of fraud”: Decade after Great Recession, Denver attorney still cleaning up Lehman mortgage mess. (The Denver Post) Denver attorney Chris Carrington has spent much of his career since 2009 tracking down and deposing hundreds of borrowers who submitted falsified loan applications. More recently, he has been hunting down the mortgage brokers and originators behind those bogus loan applications. In recent years it has been the loan originators that haver been found to have been have conducted fraudulent processes that ensnared borrowers with varying degrees of culpability. After witnessing first hand what caused the thousands of stress fractures that sent Lehman tumbling down a decade ago, Carrington worries it is only a matter of time before it happens all over again.
“Hardly anyone got prosecuted, and that suggests that there’s little risk in folks running these same plays.”
- California professor, writer of confidential Brett Kavanaugh letter, speaks out about her allegation of sexual assault (The Washington Post) See also Kavanaugh accuser breaks silence over sexual misconduct allegations (The Hill). Speaking publicly for the first time, Christine Blasey Ford said that one summer in the early 1980s, Kavanaugh and a friend – both “stumbling drunk,” Ford alleges – corralled her into a bedroom during a gathering of teenagers at a house in Montgomery County. While his friend watched, she said, Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed on her back and groped her over her clothes, grinding his body against hers and clumsily attempting to pull off her one-piece bathing suit and the clothing she wore over it. When she tried to scream, she said, he put his hand over her mouth.
Ford said she was able to escape when Kavanaugh’s friend and classmate at Georgetown Preparatory School, Mark Judge, jumped on top of them, sending all three tumbling. She said she ran from the room, briefly locked herself in a bathroom and then fled the house.
- Bob Woodward on the ‘Best Obtainable Version of the Truth’ About Trump (New York Magazine) See also Documentary Of The Week: Bob Woodward On “Fear” In The Trump White House. From the introduction to this interview article:
Through the perspective of his sources, Woodward paints a choppy portrait of the first year of Donald Trump’s presidency. You may have heard that it’s not going well, and Fear is here to add to that perception with some behind-the-scenes specifics. For instance, that Trump doesn’t understand how U.S. trade policy might relate to U.S. foreign policy. Or that when papers are stolen off his desk, he doesn’t notice – and doesn’t even remember that they existed – for weeks. Or that he orders his tweets printed out, so that he can study in analog the metrics of their reach. Or that he called his own attorney general “mentally retarded.”
- Lisa Page bombshell: FBI couldn’t prove Trump-Russia collusion before Mueller appointment (The Hill) FBI ageent Lisa Page acknowledged a momentous fact to Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas) when questioned about texts she and Strzok exchanged in May 2017 as Robert Mueller was being named a special prosecutor to take over the Russia investigation: After nine months of using some of the most awesome surveillance powers afforded to U.S. intelligence, the FBI still had not made a case connecting Trump or his campaign to Russia’s election meddling.
- Marijuana seizures on Colorado public land nearly doubled in 2017 (The Denver Post) In all, officers uprooted nearly 81,000 plants in 2017 from the depths of the state’s mountain ranges, compared to about 45,000 in 2016, according to data collated by a federal drug task force. This was the third yearly increase in a row, according to the new report. In fact, the reported number of plant confiscations was 18 times higher in 2017 than it was in 2014, the first year of full legalization.
However, U.S. Attorney Bob Troyer thinks that 2018 could see an improvement: He told The Daily (Grand Junction) Sentinel that investigators had seen far fewer grows on public lands this year.
- What Can Cause the Next Mortgage Crisis in the US? (Wolf Street) Mortgage delinquencies are a trailing indicator of housing market strength. They don’t start rising until after the market has peaked.
UK
- UK PM May cautions: support my Brexit deal or face no deal (Reuters) British Prime Minister Theresa May has warned rebels in her party that unless they support her potential Brexit deal with the EU then they will face a no deal.
- London mayor calls for second referendum on Brexit (CNBC) London mayor Sadiq Khan has called for another referendum on Britain’s European Union membership, saying the prime minister’s handling of Brexit negotiations had become “mired in confusion and deadlock” and was leading the country down a damaging path. Britain is due to leave the European Union on March 29. But with Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit plans still not accepted, some MPs, as well as union and business leaders are increasingly arguing for people to have a final say on any deal struck with Brussels. May has repeatedly ruled out holding a second referendum following the vote two years ago to leave the EU. She says MPs will get to vote on whether to accept any final deal.
Norway
- EV Sales Soar in Norway (Twitter)
Iran
- U.S. sanctions on Iran’s oil industry are unproductive and there will be consequences to such a move, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak told CNBC.
- “Our position remains that this is unproductive, this is wrong,” Novak said when asked about the possible impact U.S. sanctions on Iran’s oil industry could have.
China
- Hong Kong, southern China clean up after super typhoon (Reuters) Super typhoon Mangkhut, with hurricane-force winds well over 200 kilometers per hour (124 miles/h), had barreled past the northern tip of the Philippines, killing at least 50 people. It then skirted south of Hong Kong and the neighboring gambling hub of Macau, before making landfall in China.
- China won’t just play defense in trade war, Global Times warns (Reuters) China will not be content to only play defense in an escalating trade war with the United States, a widely read Chinese tabloid warned, as President Donald Trump was expected to announce new tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods as early as Monday. See also China says will respond if U.S. implements new tariffs.
- China’s Bear Market Continues (Twitter)
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